Know Your Customer, for goodness sake.

At the recent CX Engagement conference, run by Engage Business Media, I grabbed a copy of the UK CX Report 2025, IPSOS and Engage Customer for some train reading (note to self. Must get out more).

The focus of this was a hot topic - Human vs Digital Interactions. Or can we save a shed load of money by investing in digital and AI without impacting customer satisfaction and trust?

Funnily enough the answer is 'No'!

The most interesting bit (for a humble Humbug Ideaologist such as me) was to observe the dynamics presented around age bands, to see if the effect of a 'personalised' CX was measured. Two data points jumped out from the IPSOS report:1. Only 12% of those aged 65+ 'strongly agree' with a preference to use digital channels to interact with companies and brands.

2. A personalised offer had the biggest impact on experience, with 84% (across all age bands!) citing it 'made it better'.

Knock on the door ..64.. mature consumers are not averse to digital but do prefer to speak to a 'human', and if they get a more personalised offer, it’s likely to enhance their CX and so increase engagement and loyalty,

The bigger picture of course is, are mature consumers engaging with advertising per se to receive such offers?Overview, based on Humbug proprietary insights is that many mature consumers simply disengage from marketing communication as they don't feel recognised. Bit of a problem really, especially when those mature consumers represent the UK's most affluent consumer segment.

Here at Humbug, we can - politely but candidly - show you that you may not know the mature consumer as well as you should or could.

But never fear, we can quickly and cost effectively demonstrate the difference between digital aptitude for information and utility, versus advertising receptiveness and give you access to unique 'tools' to do something about it enabling you to improve marketing effectiveness with them.

Here is a snippet about one ..it's called Ozzy.

Ozzy is our very own unique data-driven cluster segmentation platform built from insights from 1,000 mature consumers living in England, specifically aged 60 and over, which helps marketers unlock rich, actionable insight into Britain’s most affluent mature consumer group. Unlike broad age classification or postcode-led models (Mosaic, Acorn, Kantar) which treat 55+ or 60+ as monolithic.

Ozzy disaggregates into six distinct segments which meaningfully reflect variation across demographic circumstances—including age, consumer spend, employment status, and retirement arrangements—alongside key life events and their impact on spending for non-essentials. Critically, the segmentation captures differences in health and wellbeing profiles, distinct information sources and trust points that influence decision-making, and varying levels of advertising noticeability, engagement, and trust. Furthermore, each segment exhibits markedly different digital device usage patterns when purchasing goods and services, enabling precise targeting and channel selection - moving beyond crude age-banding to understand the full spectrum of behavioural and circumstantial factors that actually drive purchasing and engagement decisions.

So, yep there is a relationship to be understood between digital and human when engaging the mature consumer, but many marketers have no idea what it is.

We do.

Ozzy is launching in anger after Christmas and if you’d like the 15 min ‘show and tell’ in January, book yourself in here, now.

Happy New year.

Written by Tim Birchinall

Headshot by Quentin Boyes